2001 GMC Sonoma - Well Done

A Lesson in Fire Safety

You know this truck. Well, chances are pretty good you've at least heard about it because pictures of the truck in its various states have been plastered all over the web, more than rage faces or cats with In-N-Out burgers.

But just in case you're not hip to the scene, here's the skinny. This truck was originally built by The Little Shop of Horrors in Tennessee, and was black with this wicked row of spikes going across the rear frame, which led many to call it “The Spike Truck". It toured the country, got pretty famous, earned some recognition, and then sat around in the shop to collect dust.

The details on the whole scenario are kind of fuzzy at this point, but an incident involving a gas tank and an electric drill caused the back half of the truck to light up faster than an ugly chick receiving a compliment. The bed was toast, and the frame looked horrible. As an added bonus, the truck wasn't insured, so if it was going to get rebuilt, it was coming out of the owner's pocket.

Ronnie Brown of South Bartlett, Tennessee, is said owner, and even though the chips were down, he figured there was no time like the present to redo the truck and start all over. Well, not completely over, the fact is the front half of the truck wasn't really damaged and it was just the back half of the frame that had issues, so it was more a matter of cleaning up what was damaged and redoing some things along the way. As usual though, it snowballed a bit and soon the truck was getting a 1-inch chop, smoothed-out rear cab wall, new paint, and all the other goodies that come with making an appearance at SEMA. That's right, not only did Ronnie decide to rebuild the truck now dubbed “Ol' Crispy", but he did so in a time crunch, with just eight weeks from start to finish.

All that is ancient history at this point though, and today, the truck with the famous story is still touring the country and doing its thing on the show circuit. It's achieved an almost celebrity status, with multiple cover credits to its name and dozens of awards, and all of it is well deserved. Not only is this one of the cleanest minis ever built, it's still got a simple flair that makes it about as close to perfection as it can get.

So will Ronnie tear the truck down and redo it all over again in the future? Maybe he'll finally throw in that big-block he's been craving? Who knows for sure, but we know that if he should decide to strip it down, he'll do so with the proper abrasives and chemicals, not a lighter and gasoline.